Jean Borg to remain with senior squad for Finland friendly

Jean Borg is to remain with the senior Malta squad for Monday’s friendly match against Finland after fellow defender Zach Muscat was ruled out by injury. Muscat, who plays for Italian Serie C club US Arezzo, injured his knee in the dying minutes of Thursday’s friendly match against Luxembourg at the National Stadium. The 20-year-old Borg made his senior Malta debut on Thursday, playing the full match which saw Luxembourg scoring a last-gasp goal to emerge 1-0 winners. The Valletta FC, who was deployed at left-back against Luxembourg, had been due to revert to Under-21 duty ahead of the UEFA Under-21 Championship qualifier against Turkey in Alanya on Tuesday but Muscat’s injury-enforced withdrawal forced a change of plans as national coach Tom Saintfiet decided to keep Borg in his squad. Meanwhile, the Malta squad checked in at their Belek hotel on Friday evening after travelling to Antalya via Istanbul. Malta play Finland in another friendly match at the Gloria Sports Arena on Monday evening (kick-off 18.00).GRECH REPLACES INJURED GALEA IN U-21 SQUAD Malta Under-21 coach Silvio Vella has called up Floriana goalkeepeer Matthew Grech in his travelling squad for Tuesday’s UEFA Under-21 Championship qualifier against Turkey at the Oba Stadyumu in Alanya (kick-off 15.00). Grech replaces Ħamrun Spartans goalkeeper Jake Galea who suffered an injury in the first half of Friday’s 3-1 defeat to Switzerland U-20 at the Centenary Stadium. Mosta goalkeeper Andreas Vella came on for Galea after just 28 minutes of Friday’s warm-up.